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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24081274">we're teaching each other to smile (there's hope for our future)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/amako/pseuds/amako'>amako</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Haruno Inami [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(sakura is the dork here), Alternate Universe - Future, Curtain Fic, Deaf Character, Dorks in Love, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kakashi-critical, Kid Fic, Love, Married Life, Naruto-critical, Non-Verbal Character, Physical Abuse, Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Romance, Sasuke-critical, an adult speaking badly to a child, and some extremely minor, and the whole political system of totalitarism, i don't think it warrants caution but you know, in my usual way, in the form of a too tight grip to the arm, mute character, so it's mostly just kishimot critical in the way he handles naruto's rise to power, this is really really minor, to the child</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:07:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,409</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24081274</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/amako/pseuds/amako</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Haruno family gets a new member. Mostly by accident. They can't say they actually mind, though.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Haruno Sakura/Nara Shikamaru</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Haruno Inami [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863295</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>335</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>we're teaching each other to smile (there's hope for our future)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/LindtLuirae/gifts">LindtLuirae</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a "gift" to bouncyirwin who was kind enough to support me during these hard times. </p><p>AO3 has a policy against financial promotion so I'm not allowed to go into specifics or name the exact thing that actually happened between bouncy and I, but you can probably guess. So if you'd like to support me in that way, you can find the information on my tumblr @dimancheetoile where I currently run a discount for both art and fic. I know this is a hard time for everyone, but I still feel like I need to give it a shot by asking this of you. So if you enjoy what I write and would like to see me continue to post here, then I invite you to go to my tumblr and support me through that process. Quarantine has put my family out of work, and because I'm disabled, I already didn't have a job at the beginning. Right now, the only way I can support my family is through those works. So if you can afford it, I'd be truly grateful. </p><p>Thank you all, and I hope you enjoy this fluffy story. Thank bouncy too, because you all know me, fluff isn't something I typically write, but this is what bouncy wanted, so you shall all receive!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western">Sakura meets him first.</p><p class="western">It’s a funny coincidence, in hindsight. The day has been quite strange for her, and the hospital staff. On this crisp, cold morning of winter, Sakura is doing her last shift at the hospital before quitting her job as Head of Konoha Medical.</p><p class="western">All good things end, and her career at the hospital isn’t even what she’d consider an entirely good thing. There were hard and frustrating days, days she would come home disassociating and half-way into a panic attack, days she would rage against a system rigged against civilians or anyone who didn’t meet the Konoha standards. Becoming Head of the hospital had changed a lot of those things, but she would still be a liar by calling her career perfect. As sad as she is to leave her patients, she’s not sad to leave her work in itself. Honestly, she’s excited to go back to the mission deck with her husband as a two-man squad.</p><p class="western">She spends long moments with the kids in permanent care. Growing up in a hospital is a fucking tragedy and anyone who tells her differently is a monster. If there’s one thing that she’ll miss above all, is the time spent with these children that life screwed over. Sakura stays longer than she normally would, taking the time to say goodbye to every child. It’s one of the hardest fucking things she’s ever done, and she fought in a war.</p><p class="western">As she makes her last round through the children’s unit, she hears a harsh voice through a wall. Sakura frowns, caught off guard. This is clearly not a child’s voice either. She quickly finds the door that leads into the small examination room, and she walks in without pause. She freezes in place when she takes in the situation. On the examination table, a small child is sitting in a hospital gown. He’s looking up at a nurse, eyes filled with fear as big, ugly tears roll down his red face. The nurse has her hand wrapped around the child’s upper arm and she’s yelling at him.</p><p class="western">Blood boiling, Sakura growls a threat that the nurse hears, turning to face Sakura with an outraged expression that quickly pacifies as she recognises her superior.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Oh, Haruno-sensei! I’m glad you’re here, maybe you can get that stubborn-”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Sakura sees red, and she lunges forward, ripping the nurse’s hand from the kid’s arm.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Don’t you fucking dare touch them again. You’re fired, effective immediately.”</p><p class="western">The nurses looses all colour. “What- but, Haruno-sensei, I…”</p><p class="western">“Pack your things and get the fuck away from my hospital.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Red with shame and anger, the nurse storms out of the room. Sakura doesn’t pay her any mind, instead turning to look at the child.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Does anything hurt, love?”</p><p class="western">The child looks at her with a blank stare, looking just as frightened as before. Sakura frowns. “Did she hurt you? I’m not going to, I promise.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">The kid looks down at their little fists, bundled in their lap. Not a sound. Following her intuition, Sakura brings a hand forward, snapping next to the kid’s ear. No reaction. She calls out a few times, nothing again. A conclusion forming in her mind, she taps their shoulder gently, to get their attention. Slowly, she signs her name and a greeting. Instantly, the kid’s face lights up and they answer in kind with their own name. His name.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">‘Hello, Inami-chan.’</p>
<hr/><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Sakura couldn’t exactly tell you how it happened. It’s a flurry of motions and paperwork as she uncovers more and more about the tragedy that is Inami’s life. She’s definitely a bit unbalanced, nerves frayed, and she’s still so furious about the way he’s been treated, how no one was competent enough to see that he wasn’t being stubborn by not answering, but simply unable to. So, she couldn’t explain exactly how it happens, but when she leaves the hospital that day, she has a child in her arms. The magnitude of what she just signed up for hits her like a brick when she steps inside their house and comes face to face with a very confused Shikamaru.</p><p class="western">Sakura turns bright red but she doesn’t look away, one of the foundations their relationship is built on. Facing problems together and communication. She coughs a bit, embarrassed, before clearing her throat.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“So. Hum. So. You see, I might have acquired a child.”</p><p class="western">Shikamaru’s voice is high-pitched, pained with disbelief and the special brand of knocked out when Haruno Sakura slams into your perception of the world. “Acquired?”</p><p class="western">Sakura clears her throat again. “I- Yes. Ahem. Love of my life, meet Inami.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Shikamaru, bless his heart, only gives her a calculating gaze promising a talk about this later, before he looks down at the child.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Nice to meet you, Inami-chan. My name is Haruno Shikamaru.”</p><p class="western">Sakura makes a face. “Ah, sorry. You might want to sign this to him instead.” At Shikamaru’s incredulous stare, she continues. “He can’t hear you. His vocal cords are working, so maybe we’ll try to teach him one day, but for now, sign language is our best bet.”</p><p class="western">“What did you get us into, Sakura?”</p><p class="western">She doesn’t back away from his cautious expression, so Shikamaru sighs, letting it go for now in favour of introducing himself to Inami again.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">With the little boy settled under the warmth of the kotatsu blanket, happily drawing shapes on one of Shikamaru’s blank scrolls, the two adults sit down together.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Can you explain this to me?”Shikamaru doesn’t look angry, just curious and a bit confused, a wariness the world taught him unmistakable as he waits for an answer that Sakura doesn’t know if she can give.</p><p class="western">“I… I don’t really know. I walked in on a nurse yelling at him because he wouldn’t answer her. Then I did some digging. Apparently, a genin team and their teacher found him in a small village, barely a couple of houses really, where they went to investigate reports of fighting. Everyone was dead when they got there, except him. They brought him back this morning, and he’s been in the hospital since.”</p><p class="western">“Kami…” Shikamaru sighs tiredly, scrubbing his face with his hands as if to wake himself up.</p><p class="western">“Yeah. I don’t know what to tell you, love. He was half-out of it with exhaustion and fear, no one knows what to do with him and the orphanage is still bursting from the war.”</p><p class="western">Shikamaru makes a noise of disapproval. “It’s been seven years, seriously.”</p><p class="western">Sakura shrugs. “I’m not happy about it, but it’s not what our esteemed government is prioritising.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">They exchange a knowing look, no need for any more words on the matter. The relationship between them and the remaining members of Team 7 is strained, Sai being the only exception. It’s not bad by any means, but there’s nothing left of the easy camaraderie. Sasuke is angry at Sakura for getting with Shikamaru during the war, Sakura is angry at Sasuke period, and the tensions that created bled into her relationship with Naruto and Kakashi, which in turn bled into their relationship with Shikamaru.</p><p class="western">They look down when Inami takes a few wobbly steps towards them to tug at Sakura’s yukata.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">‘Everything alright?’</p><p class="western">‘Hungry.’</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Sakura smiles adoringly. Inami isn’t fluent, of course, still very young for all that sign language has to teach him, but he gets his point across well enough. Shikamaru is looking at Sakura instead, seeing the enamoured look on her face, the kindness she shows the boy as she takes his hand to lead him into the kitchen. He follows quietly, smiling when Sakura props Inami up on the counter and begins signing a couple of options to him, teaching him what he doesn’t know.</p><p class="western">How can he say no to this adorable addition to their family when she looks this happy to have him here? How can he say no to Inami being one of them when the boy looks at him with wide eyes full of quiet joy and reaches towards Shikamaru to be held? How can he say no to a third Haruno living in their house when Inami already fits so well, barely a few hours in?</p><p class="western">Sakura wraps her arms around his waist, pressed closed against his back and she pops her head on his shoulder. He turns around slightly to kiss her, Inami’s small hand patting him on the cheek as the boy gives a silent giggle. This is good.</p>
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